England under pressure to finish the year on a high with the head coach
calling Wallabies game a 'mood shaper' for the next 12 months

It’s show time for England. The autumnal auditions have run their course, the options have been sifted and this is the cast that has been entrusted with the business of beating the Wallabies and getting the country revved up for the World Cup extravaganza.

Of course, there are injury issues, players to return, but there is still a compelling sense that Stuart Lancaster’s side have to nail down a result against a side that they will be facing for real in 10 months’ time or those upbeat forecasts will have to be revised, all the more so given that their next game is away to another World Cup opponent, Wales, on Feb 1. Portents matter. All eyes will be on Twickenham. A loss would be a bitter, bitter blow.

England are fully aware of the significance of this fixture.

“There has been a bit of tension, an edge in training, an edge in meetings, an edge in the way the boys go about their business and that is what you want,” said the backs coach, Andy Farrell, as England wrapped up their preparations on Friday in benign conditions. “There is a real appetite to play. We have now got to transfer all that to the field. But it is not just about skill and tactical nous. It is about willpower and passion and fightback attitude. That is what we have to get right. The rest will take care of itself.”

Related Articles

Two years ago, the English bear was similarly poked after a downbeat November return of results. Stung by criticism, England lashed out to beat the all-conquering All Blacks. They require a reaction of the same scope on Saturday. Never mind the guff about only losing by three points to the top two sides in the world, New Zealand and South Africa, Australia have actually slipped down the rankings and lie in fifth place below England. There are no get-out clauses this time. The stakes are far higher.

Factor in too that European teams invariably bleat about fatigue at the end of a long season on tour in June, hanging on for grim death in their last tests. The Wallabies can reach for an excuse, but that is not their way, while England have no such mitigating clause. Everything is loaded in their favour.

They have to be mean and ruthless and demanding of themselves. That unforgiving mentality has to become embedded deep in their psyche. Penalties cost. Mistakes, too. Switch-off periods are ruinous. Chances missed have serious consequences. These are all on England’s charge sheet.

Any repeat against Australia and the fallout will be painful.

England know what is coming their way. “We battened down the hatches after the South Africa game,” said Tom Wood. “We knew we were going to come in for some flak, that fingers were going to be pointed at individuals, that the scrutiny was going to go up.”

Wood, recalled to the colours after being demoted to bench duty last week, added: “Everything is going to be related to the World Cup. We have to pull tight and look inward. The job of the critics in the media is to sensationalise, to build everything up and to relate it to what it all means. For us it’s the opposite. It’s to level out all the peaks and troughs. If we win by three points we’re heroes but we don’t get ahead of ourselves, we just keep working. If we lose by three, it’s not the end of the world. We don’t all go on suicide watch. We just pull tighter and work on things we need to work on. We’re not where we want to be but we don’t feel we’re a million miles away.”

Saturday afternoon would be a time to recalibrate that radar so that they are spot on. There have been too many spells over the last three weeks when England have been ad hoc and off-message, by turns hidebound and error-prone, unable, or unwilling, to resort to simple rugby.

That fault line, that tendency towards headless-chicken rugby, appears to have been repaired. The Wallabies may no longer be the Wobblies of old, when Andrew Sheridan would single-handedly destroy their manhood at the scrum, but they still lag behind England’s forward-based firepower. So, you may ask, why the hell not to play to that strength? That particular penny appears to have dropped.

“It is payback time for our forwards because they have been brilliant,” said fly-half George Ford when asked if England should just concentrate on grinding Australia into the dirt through their forwards. “Definitely, if that is the way it has got to work. We have told each other that we mustn’t get bored of doing the things that are working. If it is one of those games where we keep putting the ball in behind them and squeezing them at set-piece time, then that is what we have to do.”

After three weekends of rain sluicing down over Twickenham, the forecast is set fair. Australia are masters of the counter-attack, with full-back Israel Folau a threat from anywhere, and a battalion of danger men such as Quade Cooper and Kurtley Beale on the bench ready to torment. “Defensively, Australia pose the greatest test of all,” said Farrell.

England will have their moments, too, and look to have a better balance in the 10-12 axis just as long as Billy Twelvetrees brings his Mr Hyde game to the party and leaves those horrible My Jekyll moments back in the changing room. One of the plus points for England has been the yield they have got from wing Jonny May, and the potential that is to be drawn out still further from his colleague Anthony Watson. That pair can match the Australians stride for stride, and damn well need to do so.

Lancaster has spoken of this game as a “mood-shaper” for what lies ahead. Whatever slack there is to be cut, has already been clipped. England have to finish on a high, or Black Friday will morph into Black Saturday.